In a bombshell interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, former Ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson declined to apologise for his friendship with Epstein after his conviction for child sex offences
Peter Mandelson has come under fire after refusing to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for continuing his friendship with the notorious paedophile.
The former Ambassador to the US, who was sacked after emails between him and Epstein came to light in September, stuck with the billionaire despite him being convicted of sex crimes. Asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg whether he would say sorry, Lord Mandelson said: “But I was not culpable. I was not knowledgeable of what he was doing, and I regret, and will regret to my dying day, the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect.”
While not admitting any personal culpability, he said: “I want to apologise to those women for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect.”
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Government minister Heidi Alexander hit out at him. Asked if he should have apologised, she said: “I think what we saw there in that interview was at best deep naivety from Peter Mandelson.
“And I think it would have gone a long way for the women who were subjected to the most appalling treatment at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein for Peter to have apologised and taken that opportunity, yes, I do.”
Mandelson maintained he was “at the edge of this man’s life” and said: “I can say to you categorically I never saw anything in his life when I was with him, when I was in his homes, that would give me any reason to suspect what this evil monster was doing in preying on these young women.
“Do you really think that if I knew what was going on and what he was doing with, and to, these vulnerable young women that I’d have just sat back, ignored it and moved on and said, okay, that’s his, that’s his life, he can get on with it? Do you think I would have done that?
“Do you think I’d have written emails like that if I had even one iota of knowledge or suspicion of what he was doing? I certainly would not.”
He said that despite Epstein’s first conviction in 2008, he believed the financier’s protests that he was a victim of injustice. Emails that surfaced last year showed Mandelson told his pal he “thought the world of him,” and advised him to “fight for early release”.
Mandelson said: “They were awful, toe curling messages and and emails that were published. And they’re very embarrassing.”
Keir Starmer asked for him to be removed from the position after it emerged he coached Epstein through “years of torture” over underage sex charges. In 2008 the Labour veteran emailed Epstein: “Your friends stay with you and love you.” And he urged the banker to “fight for early release”.
The British Embassy in Washington said the emails show the depth and extent of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein is “materially different from that known at the time of his appointment”.
Lord Mandelson told Epstein in 2008: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened. I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.
“You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.
“Everything can be turned into an opportunity and that [sic] you will come through it and be stronger for it. The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.”
And he wrote: “Your friends stay with you and love you.” Epstein said prosecutors were using “very bad info” and claimed to have passed a polygraph test.
In another email Lord Mandelson quoted ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu, who wrote a book named The Art of War. He said: “Reminder. You are fighting back so you need strategy, strategy, strategy. Remember the Art of War.”